P.E.O. International

Because of Shiny Boots

I met my BIL when we were both stationed in Korea. After we met, he told me he had been impressed by how shiny my boots were. Most women he met didn’t keep their boots polished as well as I did. He was a pilot, so our first date was a ride in his helicopter—an unforgettable way to start a relationship!

Katy Arterburn, AD, Huntsville, Alabama

At the Pool

I met my BIL on a hot July 10, 1966, day at an apartment complex swimming pool. He said, “Put your towel down beside me and I will take care of you.” He proposed on September 15 of that year and we were married on December 17.

Carol Quigley, EY, Omaha, Nebraska  

She Bid on Him!

I had been single for five years since the death of my husband in 1983. A friend convinced me to attend a March of Dimes fundraiser that featured area bachelors offering dates at auction. Prior to the start of the auction, I was introduced to a gentleman and was immediately smitten. I knew nothing about him, but our initial handshake and eye contact were enough for me. I was determined to win the date with him and proceeded to bid to $200 to seal the deal. We dated for a year and were married in 1988. I always pride myself on having good hunches about people, and must say this venture was the smartest investment I ever made. We couldn’t be happier!

Marcia Wiedemeier, HU, Burlington, Iowa

In the Back Seat of a Car

I met him in the back seat of a car! A friend who worked at the next desk kept telling me about this Pat who moved next door, and she thought I would like him. On New Years Eve day in 1947, we were dismissed early, and after meeting her husband in their car, she dashed back into the office, and said, as she pulled on my sweater, “I’ve got him in the car!” I hurriedly went with her, met Pat and fell in love at first glance. He was assigned to an AT&T crew equipping coaxial cable for TV, where only single men were assigned and left for the east coast in two weeks. He didn’t believe in going steady, but promised that he’d write every day, call once a week, and possibly come home once a month to visit me and see his parents. I finally decided to write a note to his boss with all the therefore and whereas that any legal secretary would know, and with Pat’s approval, suggested that his boss reassign him so we could make wedding plans. We were married July 23, 1949, in Omaha, Nebraska.

Bernadine D. Patterson, HN, Arlington Heights, Illinois  

On a Long Walk to Class

I met my BIL before he met me! In 1957, we were both freshmen at Cornell College in Iowa. David was a tall, lanky city boy who was always carrying around a huge string bass. This shy, farmer’s daughter noticed him right away. But it wasn’t until our sophomore year when we both had college choir at 1 p.m. at the East end of campus and psychology at 2 p.m. at the West end, that we got to know each other as we trekked across that windy hilltop day after day together. We were a couple from then on and became engaged in the fall of our senior year. David was a history and philosophy major and I was the secretary in the history department typing all his tests, and I never once divulged any test secrets. We were married in the afternoon of our graduation day in the small chapel at Cornell College.

Ann Harsh, EI, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin

Music Majors at College

My BIL and I graduated from the same small college in Tarkio, Missouri, where we had known each other for several years. One cold evening in January 1951, when we were seniors, we had an interesting meeting. We were both music majors and I heard him practicing the drums. I stopped by to chastise him for missing his society meeting. We talked so long we both missed our scheduled meetings. There were lots of laughs and a realization that we had too much in common to ignore. By the day after graduation in May, we were engaged. We were married in October of 1951

Barbara Long, IC, Davenport, Iowa  

In the Nursery

I met my BIL 62 years ago in the church nursery in Inglewood, California. My folks moved a year later, and we didn’t meet for the 2nd time until we were 21. I was living in San Diego and a friend asked if she could invite the members of her Methodist Work Team for a weekend of showing their slides of their work in Alaska. I agree, and five men and six women spent the weekend in my one-bedroom apartment. Larry, at 6’4”, slept in the easy chair. Two days later, I received 2 dozen roses from Larry, thanking me for my hospitality. A year later we were married.

Glory Kellett, WH, Lake Almanor, California

In a Garage

While living in Kennett, Missouri, I worked as bookkeeper for a car dealer. Often times this handsome young man would bring his car into our garage to be serviced. So one great day, I became courageous and (as he says) asked him for a date. We married and after 55 years and two wonderful P.E.O. daughters, we are so happy!

Betty J. Foster, AR, Pocahontas, Arkansas  

Tennis, Anyone?

I’m a newlywed who met my current BIL, Ralph Haake, in 1991 when my husband, Dan Wallis, and I were transferred from Texas to the St. Louis area. When I became a widow in January of 2004, Ralph saw Dan’s picture in the obituary column and sent me a sympathy note, which included an invitation to contact him sometime in the future if I would like to play tennis. Eventually I did respond to Ralph’s note, we did get together to play tennis, were married June 12, 2006 and, as they say, the rest is history!

Sarah Flagg Haake, KQ, St. Charles, Missouri

Making Beautiful Music Together

I was teaching in the Palo Alto, California, school district. I had played the viola in local orchestral groups for years. I had a friend who lived in the law school dorm at Stanford. A tall, dark and handsome fellow moved into the room next door and guess what? He also played viola! As violists are somewhat rare in the musical world, we soon became friends. We first played together in the annual Stanford “sing along, play along” Messiah. Then our church chamber group did one of the few Bach Cantatas the required a double viola part and I was told to go find a second violist. I knew just where to look! I invited him to play that Cantata with me and the rest, as they say, is history! We went on to play in the Peninsula Symphony together. We were married the day before he graduated from law school and we have been playing together in various groups ever since.

Lee Evan Belfiglio, GP, Bellevue, Washington  

Thanks to a White Sweater

I met my husband at a mixer dance at college, but the reason why my dear Rex chose me to dance with him goes back three months to my graduation from high school. The movie theater in Sheridan, Wyoming, where I grew up held an amateur contest one evening. I was lucky to win that contest, playing the original piano version of Deep Purple, by Peter De Rose. With that money I bought a white angora sweater, which I was wearing at the mixer dance. Rex told me that he spotted me across the room with that white sweater contrasting with my jet black hair, and so we met. During our dance he asked me if I played piano, and when I answered “yes” he asked me to accompany him as he played his trombone around the state at music clubs. This I did and after we finished college, we were married. He had a beautiful, deep bass voice, which I talked him into using in the choir of the church were I was organist. He eventually did a lot of solo work with that voice and we spent 64 years making music together.

Leora Ireland, CG, Sun City West, Arizona

A Game of Bridge

I was the hostess in the General Denver Hotel in Wilmington, Ohio, and also clerk of the board of education of the city schools. A friend told me that a young man was coming to town to work; he was very nice and very handsome and she wanted us to meet. She added that he liked to play bridge as much as I did. I told her to bring him to the hotel for lunch sometime – thinking maybe in a few days or weeks – or maybe it would never work out. The young man started his job at 8 o’clock on Monday, July 5, 1948. He and my friend came for lunch at 12 o’clock that day. He and I were introduced. We said a few words – he said, “By the way, I hear you like to play bridge. Maybe we can have a game sometime.” I said, “That would be nice.” After he paid the check, he turned to me and said, “Do you suppose you can get us a game tonight?” I said, “I think I can.” And I did! To make long story short, we became engaged February 2 and were married August 6, 1949. We have been married over 57 years. I am 92 years of age and we still live in Wilmington and still play bridge three or four times every week.

Hilda Bradehoff, F, Wilmington, Ohio  

Amo, Amas, Amat

My husband and I met in the high school band. When we did not have band, we went to study hall. One day he gave me a note, written in Latin. Since I was not the best Latin student in the world, it took me a while to translate the message which asked, “Will you give me a kiss?” (He had help from his friend, who was in my Latin class.) The next time in study hall, I answered him with a blank piece of paper, in which was wrapped a Hershey’s kiss. We’ve been sharing kisses ever since, for 56 years!

Judy Simmonds, AO, Rhinelander, Wisconsin

On a Surveillance Assignment

One day in 1979, my BIL and I met for the first time. We were employed by different federal law enforcement agencies. On a particular day we were both assigned to surveill people believed to be involved in criminal activity, in violations of different laws that we were responsible for enforcing. Neither of us knew each other at the time. I was relatively new to the area and had not met all of the federal agents. What made our meeting particularly amusing was that both our vehicles pulled into the same parking lot to conduct our surveillance. That parking lot was in front of a small church. The line my husband used on me, “Are you a single-type person?” was precious and original. We married in 1981. Twenty-five years later, we still remember that day and our fortuitous meeting.

Linda Nadel, CS, Tucson, Arizona  

On the First Day of School

When I was 15, my family moved from Columbus, Ohio, where I’d lived most of my life, to Bowling Green, Ohio. I’d had a wonderful childhood in Columbus and was terrified of being in a new place where I knew no one. The first day of school, a friendly boy sat next to me in English class. It was obvious he had lots of friends and his smile was contagious. My high school years flew by and I went on to college. A group of high school friends got together, and even though we’d run in different circles for five years, it happened – I fell in love with that boy who made me feel so welcome on my first day in a brand new school! Last year we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary!

Ann Otley, AA, Bowling Green, Ohio

A Snowy Night in a Parking Lot

Ten years ago my husband Mike and I were both in classes at Marquette working on our MBAs. On the last night of our organizational behavior class, Mike scared me half to death while I was brushing snow off of my car in the parking lot – which was located right under the freeway and a little scary! He asked me if I’d like to go out sometime. We met the following week for drinks and then were married about 2 years later! I like to tease him about waiting until the last night of class to ask in case I said no! Had it also not been snowing that night he would have missed me!

Amy Dethloff, CP, Brookfield, Wisconsin  

During a Game of “Winkum”

When my future husband-to-be and I were going into 9th grade, a mutual friend had a party for her friends. That was 1956. We played the old favorite teen game “Winkum” where the girls sit in a circle with a boy standing behind her. The boy who is “it” walks around the circle and winks at a girl. The boy sitting behind her has to grab her before she leaves her chair and runs across the circle to the empty chair. When I was winked at, the boy, who later became my husband, grabbed me before I could escape my chair. His fingernail sliced into my back. I was wearing a scooped neck blouse. Blood ran down my back. We still joke about him “marking me for his” at that time. Seven years later we were married. Now 44 years later, he’s still my beloved BIL.

Beckie Coles, E, Anchorage, Alaska

On the Way to Prison

My husband asked me for our first date as we were on our way to prison. My college girlfriend told me I should join the chess club to meet a guy named Dennis. The chess club was planning a trip to Leavenworth Penitentiary to play chess with the inmates’ chess club. I didn’t win a single game, but won a great husband of 37 years now.

Karen Slater, CL, Sun City West, Arizona  

Why Mona Lisa is Smiling

In 1957 I was on a tour of the Middle East and southern Europe with my parents and a group of Methodists. On the last Sunday of our tour we visited the Louvre Museum and as we stood looking at the Mona Lisa we were met by another tour, which was being led by the best friends of my parents. We were all introduced and although I found Richard to be tall, dark and handsome, I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to him because I thought he was married to his sister. We lived 16 miles apart in Southern California and because he had known and admired my dad at church camp, he called his tour leader to see how he could get in touch with me. She said, “Oh goody,” and promptly invited us all to their house for supper and to see some of each other’s slides. That was in August, we were engaged on New Year’s Eve and married in June.

Phyllis (Chamberlin) Overman, AY, Tacoma, Washington

Reconnected through Modern Technology

Fifty-two years ago my second BIL and I danced several dances at my junior prom, his senior prom. He had a date, I was single, but “the magic” was there. Shortly after the prom he asked me for a movie date and two and one half years of dating followed. Our dates were limited to weekend and/or holidays as he attended Iowa State University and I attended Northwest Missouri State. Neither of us owned a car and money for phone calls was not available. Distance took its toll and we went our separate ways. We each married, had three children apiece and were widowed. Then two years ago our home town celebrated its 125th anniversary and we both attended. We discovered we were both widowed and after a brief conversation we returned to our respective homes – his in southeast Iowa, myself to the Kansas City area. Two weeks later my phone rang – he had looked up my number and address on the computer – we renewed “the magic” of 50 years before and were married two months later! The computer brought us together where the lack of transportation and phone calls had failed before.

Mary Ellen Wright, ET, Lee’s Summit, Missouri  

As Teenagers at Church Camp

I met my BIL Adrian (AJ) Johnson in 1986 when I was 14 and he was 16 at the Beaver Creek Church Camp in Southfork, Colorado. Much to my mother’s chagrin, he was my first boyfriend and I knew immediately that we were to be married some day. After a year’s long distance love affair of daily letter writing and the occasional call, we broke up, but remained friends and occasionally kept in touch. Seven years after we had first met we reconnected while I was at Cottey College. AJ and a friend were traveling across the country and stopped by to surprise me. When the announcement was made that I had a male visitor I knew at once who it as even though we hadn’t spoken in years. I was still in love (even though at th time I had another boyfriend). A year later I received a postcard from AJ that he had joined the Navy and was stationed in Hawaii. I had since moved to Moscow, Idaho. After we found out that he would be in port in Seattle, Washington, we decided to meet. We rekindled our relationship and from there began writing our daily love letters once again. After a week-long visit to Hawaii and then a summer together in France, we were engaged and finally, for the first time, lived in the same town in San Antonio, Texas. We have now been married for 11 years and just had our first child, a son, Diego.

Holly Custard, HQ, Austin, Texas

In Anatomy Class

In 1946 I was a freshman medical student at Vermillion, South Dakota. In anatomy class we were assigned four to a table. During coffee breaks we would toss a coin to see who paid for coffee. Somehow I usually paid. One of the other students (a former Navy pilot) befriended me and showed me how they made the coin come up the way they wanted. We were married the following summer.

Catherine M. Heise Steele, Q, Great Falls, Montana  

At a Local Drugstore

It was the last year of WWII, 1945, when following our movie date, a young pilot lieutenant from our small town’s Air Corps base, and I walked into a local drugstore hangout that also had a jukebox and a large room for dancing. Only problem, all the booths were taken, but another pilot lieutenant and his date invited us to sit down with them and following being introduced, the rest of the evening was spent in conversation, dancing and enjoying our Cokes. Two days later I received a call from Lieutenant Dodder, who had invited us to share his booth, asking for a date. I accepted and the rest is history. We were married five weeks later, just before he shipped out for the war in Europe. It was a year before he returned home. I’m sure no one gave our marriage the slightest chance of succeeding given that history, but here we are 61 years later.

Jayne Dodder, EZ, Coffeyville, Kansas

Thanks to Purple Beanies

Following my 1956 high school graduation, I was initiated into my grandmother and mother’s P.E.O. chapter AK in Brooklyn, Iowa. That fall I entered Iowa Wesleyan College (IWC) in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where our sisterhood was founded. It was a tradition at IWC for freshmen men and women to wear purple beanies at all times until Homecoming. If the football game was won by IWC, the beanies could be taken off. If not, they were worn for yet another week. In addition to the hats, freshmen were not permitted to walk on the triangular sidewalk in front of the chapel. The consequence for any infraction of these rules meant a bad haircut by the men lettermen. They carried scissors and were allowed to snip your locks! The certain letterman was always chasing me when I “forgot.” At first I was annoyed and tried to outrun him. However, I really liked his looks and began to enjoy our encounters. So despite the bad haircuts, I started slowing down! I married this letterman 49 years ago and we have six children and 17 grandchildren. I will forever be grateful for those little purple beanies!

Pat (Schwiebert) Sutten, MJ, Marshalltown, Iowa  

At the First Day of Kindergarten

I met my BIL the first day of kindergarten in Tucumcari, New Mexico. I lived in an area of mostly older people so I was so excited to have new friends. At noon I walked home with some friends. Soon they dropped off and I went north instead of south. Nothing was familiar. Johnny’s mother looked out her kitchen window and said, “John, do you know that girl? I think she is lost. You take her back to the school.” He did, but he had me walk behind him because he did not want to be seen with a girl. He remembers a girl with long golden curls and I remember a brown-haired boy with kind snappy brown eyes. We walked to school together in junior high, dated from sophomore year on and then we went off to college together, where we were married our freshman year.

Patricia Shockley, FA, Liberal, Kansas

At Church on Easter Sunday

I met my BIL while at church on Easter Sunday 1996. He was on vacation in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I was living there while teaching. The priest announced that Easter is a time for family. John turned to me and said, “I don’t know who you are, but I love you!” We talked briefly after mass. He was returning to Vancouver that day only knowing my first name and my occupation. I didn’t think I’d ever see him again. When John returned to Canada, he decided to call the chamber of commerce in Scottsdale and get the phone numbers of schools in the area. He began calling schools asking if a “Beth” worked there. Somehow he found my school and an 8th grader answered the phone. The secretary would have never told him anything, however, the student put him through to my voicemail. We were married in the church where we met in May of 1997.

Beth Young-Clarke, EQ, Blair, Nebraska  

During a Snowball Fight

I met my BIL at a grange meeting, when we were second graders, where he threw a snowball at me! It was years later that we married and began 52 great years together.

Rosemary Norrick, Q, Indianapolis, Indiana

On an Elevator

I was living in New York City and met my BIL in the elevator of Riverside Church. The tower of the church has 24 floors, so there’s plenty of time to get to know someone while riding the elevator!

Leonor Brown, D, Newport, Rhode Island  

As Babies on a Blanket

My BIL and I met as babies as we shared a blanket on the lawn of my parents’ backyard. Eighteen years later I married that sweet boy next door and after 56 years we’re still happily sharing a blanket.

Virginia Sellon, EA, Randolph, Nebraska

At the Library

It was the summer of 1952. I had just gotten my MA degree in library science and was working at Akron Public Library. One weekend a friend and I attended the YMCA’s singles dance on Saturday night. She met a young man and they dated. He did not have a car and after taking her home, which was on a lake near Akron he missed the last bus to town. So the next date he asked a friend who had a car. So the blind date was arranged. I had to work that day until 9 PM. So they picked me up there at the library. Ray likes to say, “I went to the library to get a book, but checked Rene out instead.” We were married six months later.

Irene Kincheloe, KJ, Marion, Iowa  

On a City Bus

I met my BIL on a city bus in Indianapolis in 1941. He was a graduate engineer who had his pilot’s license before he joined the Army Air Corps. He was stations in Orlando on the Air Force Board as a test pilot and was in Indianapolis studying the Allison Motor. It was summertime and I was an apprentice to a French modiste until college started again in the fall. There was a war on and I felt I’d like to do my part, so I was taking a night course at Prest-O-Lite to become a draftsman in their plant. That’s how my future BIL and I came to be on the same midnight bus going to the University City campus. The group of officers studying the Allison Motor was staying on campus and had been told that the women’s dorm had a 10:30 curfew. When we both got off at the same bus stop he inquired why I was allowed to be out so late. I told him that the dean was so proud of my war effort she said, “Maxine, you can have a key to the dorm.” He said, “Are you Maxine Booth?” I was shocked – how could he know my name? It seems that in Orlando he was friends with an ex college boyfriend of mine, who told him to look me up. We’ve been married 63 wonderful years!

Maxine Hadfield, DH, Fort Walton Beach, Florida